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Providers
Heatlh Complex Medical rebrands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Home Oxygen company earns audit reprieve . . . . . . . . . 15
Q&A: CareCentrix's Steve Wogen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
New website is Home Because . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
■ Home Health Depot is
in a 'very good market to
sell,' says Nate Feltman.
See story page 1.
Briefs
Apria settles
with MassHealth
LAKE FOREST, Calif. – Apria Healthcare has
agreed to pay more than $750,000 to set-
tle allegations that it billed Massachusetts
residents for services already covered by
MassHealth, the state's Medicaid program.
Under the settlement announced Aug. 9,
Apria has agreed to pay $99,008 in restitu-
tion and $665,934 in penalties to settle al-
legations that the company improperly billed
consumers between December 2011 and
April 2017, according to Massachusetts At-
torney General Maura Healey. Despite the
settlement, Apria denies it violated any state
laws. "We are pleased to have resolved this
matter with the Massachusetts Attorney
General," said Raoul Smyth, Apria's execu-
tive vice president and general counsel, in
a statement. "Although Apria denies that it
has violated any Massachusetts laws, this
resolution reflects Apria's desire to put this
matter behind it so that it can continue to
focus on the needs of patients."
CPAP helps keep COPD
patients out of hospitals,
study shows
TUCSON, Ariz. – Although PAP therapy is asso-
ciated with a reduction in hospitalization for
COPD patients, more than 92% of patients
are not receiving the therapy, according to
a recently published study funded by Royal
Philips. The retrospective study, led by Dr.
Sairam Parthasarathy, professor of medicine
and interim chief of Division of Pulmonary,
Allergy, Critical Care and Sleep Medicine at
the University of Arizona College of Medi-
cine, revealed that only 7.5% of the more
than 1.8 million COPD patients analyzed
were receiving any form of PAP therapy. Data
from the reviewed administrative claims sug-
gest that individuals receiving either BiPAP,
CPAP or non-invasive positive pressure ven-
tilation therapy experienced lower hospital-
ization risk than before therapy initiation, as
well as lower hospital risk than those who
did not receive any positive airway pressure
therapy at all.
Short takes: Northern
Rehab, WVU HME
Northern Rehab Equipment & Respiratory
is closing its doors after 19 years in busi-
ness, according to a local newspaper. The
Redding, Calif.-based provider served cus-
tomers all over the North State, specializing
in products for the elderly like beds, wheel-
chairs, walkers, oxygen concentrators, dia-
betic shoes and more. New West Medical,
also in Redding, bought some of Northern
Rehab's inventory and took on some of its
customers, according to the newspaper...
WVU Home Medical Equipment held
a ribbon cutting ceremony this week
for its new store in Bridgeport, West
Va. The store gives WVU HME, part of
St. Joseph's Hospital, a central location
to provide everything from chair lifts to
wrist splints to customers in north central
West Virginia.
WWW . HMENEWS . COM / SEP t EM b ER 2017 / HME NEWS 15
By T. Flaher T y, Managing e ditor
HARTFORD, Conn. – It may seem like
a concept straight out of a sci-
fi film, but artificial intelligence
is being used across industries,
and although health care has
been a little slower on the
uptake, its time has come, says
By Theresa Flaher T y, Managing e ditor
T
he top I c of grandfathering under the
competitive bidding program came up
recently when Medicare beneficiaries in
c alifornia received a letter from Apria h ealth-
care that it is no longer a contracted provider
for oxygen in their area and explains that, as
of August, the beneficiary must transition to
a contracted provider.
While the letter raised questions about
whether Apria was exiting the market, it
is likely a routine communication alerting
Medicare beneficiaries that their rental period
By Theresa Flaher T y, Managing e ditor
WATERBURY, Conn. – h ealth c omplex Medi-
cal is "scrapping" its old messaging with a
rebrand that highlights its focus on sleep
and respiratory services.
"We're not just creating a logo—it's a
complete repositioning of our compa-
ny," said Jack h ogan, president and ceo .
" e verything is fresh and new, and crystalizes
what is already happening in our building
every day."
t he provider hired a marketing firm and
conducted a "brand audit," which included
a blind survey of employees to get their feed-
back on its existing brand. t hat, in turn,
helped the company reshape the company's
message to reflect its direction and empower
employees, says h ogan.
h ealth c omplex now has a new logo and
a new tagline, "All t aken c are o f."
"We want to let everyone—our employ-
ees, our patients, our payers and our referral
sources—understand we don't just provide
products and services," he said. "We under-
stand the pain points in this industry and we
try to be the solution to those pain points."
t he provider also scrapped its old, stan-
By Theresa Flaher T y, Managing e ditor
MODESTO, Calif. – It's not every day that
h M e providers get good news from a
c MS audit contractor, but h ome o xy-
gen c ompany recently got a break from
certain audits.
t he provider recently received word
from Noridian, the
Jurisdiction D MA c ,
that it had earned
12-month reprieves
from widespread
prepay reviews for
both oxygen and
cp A p .
"It's a confidence
builder," said Andrea e wert, ceo . "We
are doing what they like, and we are
going to keep it up."
e wert plans to use the reprieve as a
chance to further educate her referral
sources. Like many providers, h ome
o xygen c ompany says it competes with
providers who aren't such sticklers for
documentation.
" o ur competitors take anything and
everything," she said. "Now, we can
show our referral sources the letter and
say we are doing what we are supposed
to do."
c onsultant Andrea Stark says such
reprieves aren't the norm, but for cer-
tain product categories that are targeted
for constant review, like oxygen and
cp A p , if providers consistently get their
documentation right the first time, it is
a possibility.
" t oo few suppliers embrace the fact
that we want first-pass rates," said
Stark, a reimbursement consultant with
MiraVista. " p roviders bake into their
Health Complex has
it 'All Taken Care Of '
dard issue mission statement in favor of the
succinct "Make the c omplex e asy," says
h ogan.
" t hat's what we ask our staff to do—make
the complex easy," he said. "We've seen all
of health care evolve into a very difficult
landscape. e very day we are challenged
by the mounds and mounds of documen-
tation required by the payers, compliance
issues, audit issues, and it gets in the way, it
bogs down taking care of patients, which is
what we started out doing when we began
in 1984."
t he 33-year-old h ealth c omplex got its
start as a provider of core DM e like hospi-
tal beds, walkers and commodes. It added
respiratory services around 1995. t oday, the
Reprieve a
'confidence
builder'
AuditS
CareCentrix pursues 360-degree view
is up, says Apria ceo Dan
Starck.
"We haven't done any-
thing to the nature that
people are going out of
business or exiting con-
tracts," he said. "We've
been stable—the contracts
we were awarded we are
fulfilling, and the ones we
weren't we provided services on a grandfa-
thered basis as long as we are able to."
Medicare allows providers to continue
Apria letter spotlights
grandfathering provision
c are c entrix's Steve Wogen.
Wogen, chief growth officer
for the company, which coordi-
nates h M e and other services
for health plans, spoke with
h M e News recently about how
the company is leveraging AI
and machine learning to con-
nect data points and, as a result,
reduce readmissions and improve
patient outcomes.
HME N E ws: How can AI be lever-
aged in post-acute care?
Steve Wogen: p ost-acute care has
been based on silos where every
component of the care continu-
um has been designed to maxi-
mize its own profit and earnings,
and not the patient experience.
Being able to integrate all of
the diagnostic info with all the
claims info with all of the indi-
vidual characteristics of a patient,
you are able to better match the
patient to the intelligent proto-
cols that benefit that patient and
treat them as an individual as
opposed to as an average.
HME: What is an example of
data you can analyze to improve
patient outcomes?
Wogen: By looking at the credit
information of that patient to
identify whether that patient
has an auto loan—you know
whether they have a car or
access to public transportation.
You can arrange transportation,
R E p R i E v E s e e pa g e 1 6
g R A N D FAT H E R i N g s e e pa g e 1 6
W O g E N s e e pa g e 1 6
H E A LT H c o m p l e x s e e pa g e 1 6
'The more data that's
available...the more you're
able to see relationships'
Dan Starck